Blog - Giro d'Italia 2011

This afternoon a final time trial in the streets of Milan announced the end of the Giro d'Italia 2011. This 94th edition of the Tour of Italy, which celebrated the 150th anniversary of the reunification of its host country, was dominated by the Spaniard Alberto Contador (Team Saxo Bank-Sungard) who thus won his 6th Grand Tour after 3 Tour de France (2007, 2009 and 2010), one Vuelta a Espa&ntildea (2008) and his previous victory in the Giro d'Italia in 2008.

The race route which was meant to be selective with a high number of mountain top finishes and twice as much high mountain stages than flat stages, was maybe just a bit too selective?

A last stage for sprinters ... won by a sprinter. Mark Cavendish (Team HTC-Highroad) to me more precise. The rider who saw 5 opportunities to win a stage in this Giro d'Italia 2011 was able to seize 2 out of these 5.

The summary of the 12th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2011: Castelfidardo > Ravenna

A new stage with a flat race route, a new stage made for sprinters.

After yesterday's victory for John Gadret (AG2R La Mondiale), who started the pursuit for Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha Team) in the last 400 meters, today was a new stage where a breakaway group had little chances to continue until the finish.

After the first rest day, the 10th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2011 was destined to be won by a sprinter and for the first time in this Tour of Italy, Mark Cavendish (Team HTC-Highroad) was able to seize the occasion.

The summary of the 10th stage: Termoli > Teramo

The stage between Termoli and Teramo which took place today went along the coast line for about 140 kilometers before going landwards towards the finish at 159 kilometers from the start. With an almost completely flat profile, this stage could only be won by a sprinter!

Right from the first kilometer, Pierre Cazaux (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Fumiyuki Beppu broke away, with Yuriy Krivtsov chasing behind them. When the rider of the AG2R La Mondiale team joined them, t ...> Read the whole story | no comments | shown 5996x

The day before the resti day the riders could once more show upfront over 169 kilometers including a double climb of the Etna. Big winner was Alberto Contador (Team Saxobank-Sungard) who realised a double victory: stage victory and the pink jersey.

The summary of the 9th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2011: Messina > Etna

Everyone was expecting one of the sprinters as the winner of the eighth stage of the Giro d'Italia 2011 from Sapri to Tropea over 217 flat kilometers.
They did not however count on the power of Oscar Gatto (Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli) in the last 2 kilometers where he did a solo attack which surprised the sprinters. Remarkable: one of the big favourites for the final victory, Alberto Contador (Team Saxobank-Sungard) tried, without success, to take him back.

The summary of the 8th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2011: Sapri > Tropea

The story of this stage was written by a huge escape (208 km) of two Italians, Leonardo Giordani (Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli) and Mirko Selvaggi (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) who got a maximum gap of nearly 11 minutes. After a very special sprint in Sant'Eufemia Lamezia as a memory of some local riders who were killed there in an accident with a c ...> Read the whole story | no comments | shown 1459x

The seventh stage of the Giro d'Italia 2011, from Maddaloni to Montevergine, was only 110 kilometers long but did end with a mountain top finish!

As expected this final climb decided the stage victory and it was taken surprisingly by neo pro Bart de Clercq who attacked at 7 kilometers from the top and thus won this difficult stage!

The summary of the 7th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2011: Maddaloni > Montevergine

In the first part of the race, several riders tried to get away, without any real success. Five riders finally managed to really get away, including the Italian champion Giovanni Visconti (Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli), Lars Bak (Team HTC-Highroad), Frederico Canuti (Colnago-CSF Inox), Matteo Montaguti (AG2R La Mondiale) and Jérôme Pineau (Quick Step). Their highest gap was just over 3'20". ...> Read the whole story | no comments | shown 2988x

The winner of the sixth stage of the Giro was Spanish Francisco Ventoso (Team Movistar).
In the field sprint he finished just before Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) even though it seemed the Italian rider was going to win, he almost stood still in the last few meters.

The summary of the 6th stage of the Tour of Italy 2011

After 28 kilometers a serious breakaway was formed by 5 riders: the Finish Jussi Veikkanen (Omega Pharma-Lotto), the Ukranian Yaroslav Popovych (Team Radioshack), the Belgians Frederik Veuchelen (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) and Kristof Vandewalle (Quick Step) and Italian Sacha Modolo (Colnago-CSF Inox).
Their maximum gap was 5'30". In the last ten kilometres Kristof Vandewalle tried to get away alone, but this turned out to be unsuccessful in the last kilometer. Pieter Weening (Rabobank) kept the pi ...> Read the whole story | no comments | shown 5491x

The 5th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2011 was mainly characterised by a solo raid by Martin Kohler (BMC Racing Team) and than by the dirt roads which allowed Pieter Weening (Rabobank) and John Gadret (AG2R La Mondiale) to get back on the Swiss rider and for the Dutch rider to finally win the stage and take over the pink jersey!
When Tom Jelte Slagter (Rabobank) fell this recalled the sad event which happened on Monday but the young rider fortunately got out it quite well.

The summary of the 5th stage of the Tour of Italy 2011: Piombino > Orvieto

191 kilometers seperated today the finish in Orvieto from the start in Piombino. During these 191 kilometers the race again took ove ...> Read the whole story | 1 comment | shown 2864x

The 4th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2011 between Genova - Quarto dei Mille and Livorno has been neutralised, as expected, in honour of Wouter Weylandt (Team Leopard-Trek) who died on the roads of the Giro yesterday following a tragic fall in a descent.

Tonight, the team announces that the riders have decided to leave the Giro, just like his best friend Tyler Farrar already did before.

You most probably heard it somewhere else already, the young Belgian rider Wouter Weylandt of Team Leopard-Trek died this afternoon after a very bad crash in the descent of one of the mountains of the 3rd stage of the Giro d'Italia 2011.

The news arrived around 4.20PM this afternoon: a rider badly crashed in the descent of the Passo del Bocco at about 25 kilometers from the finish. Apparently he ran into the wall on the side of the road in one of the turns before he fell on the road.
It rap ...